miniDV-to-image conversion?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

Dear netters:

Here is my setup: 1) Sony TRV900; 2) P4 2.4GHz 512MB (Windows XP).

First, I want to transfer the video from my camcorder to my
computer. From what I read I need an IEEE1394 card for this. Then,
on my computer, I want to convert the miniDV video to a sequence of
still images, say foo0001, foo0002, foo0003, ... Here I prefer these
images to be lossless, or of the best quality possible. After that,
my own software will take over.

I have a few questions:

1) What a good IEEE1394 card would you recommend for my purpose?

2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?

3) What image file format should I choose?

Thank you very much for your kind help.

David

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

"David A. Hirshfeld" wrote ...
> Here is my setup: 1) Sony TRV900; 2) P4 2.4GHz 512MB (Windows XP).
>
> First, I want to transfer the video from my camcorder to my
> computer. From what I read I need an IEEE1394 card for this. Then,
> on my computer, I want to convert the miniDV video to a sequence of
> still images, say foo0001, foo0002, foo0003, ... Here I prefer these
> images to be lossless, or of the best quality possible. After that,
> my own software will take over.
>
> I have a few questions:
>
> 1) What a good IEEE1394 card would you recommend for my purpose?

There doesn't appear to be a lot of difference between 1394 cards
these days. They are common/generic/cheap enough that it doesn't cost
that much more to go for a brand name (like ADS-Tech) from a vendor
who allows returns if something doesn't work for you.

> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?

I use Adobe Premiere, but this is most likely NOT the optimal
solution for your situation. Ther are almost certainly less expensive
and easier to use solutions. Perhaps others can answer?

> 3) What image file format should I choose?

Ideally, a non-lossy format (bitmap, GIF, etc.) However most likely
better to experiment with your own setup to see what works best
with your combination of program material, software, etc. You may
find that JPEG might be best even though theoretically lossy.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

"David A. Hirshfeld" <david_a_hirshfeld@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:36ccd307.0410260006.f0928c@posting.google.com...
> Dear netters:
>
> Here is my setup: 1) Sony TRV900; 2) P4 2.4GHz 512MB (Windows XP).
>
> First, I want to transfer the video from my camcorder to my
> computer. From what I read I need an IEEE1394 card for this. Then,
> on my computer, I want to convert the miniDV video to a sequence of
> still images, say foo0001, foo0002, foo0003, ... Here I prefer these
> images to be lossless, or of the best quality possible. After that,
> my own software will take over.
>
> I have a few questions:
>
> 1) What a good IEEE1394 card would you recommend for my purpose?

It doesn't matter, as long as it is OHCI-compliant. "Capture," as applied
to miniDV, is a bit of a misnomer, as there is no image conversion that
takes place. The data on the tape is transfered, verbatim and without loss,
by the 1394 card.

>
> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?

Premiere will do it, but it's an expensive solution. JASC has a nice little
program, the name of which escapes me at the moment, which will do this and
is quite inexpensive (under $100) -- it comes with the JASC photo
manipulation software. I've used it for rotoscoping.

>
> 3) What image file format should I choose?

Well, you don't say what you want to do with all these stills. If you're
concerned about quality, either TIFF or BMP, but not JPEG. Remember, too,
that the stills will only be 740 x 480 pixels, or 355k -- not exactly high
resolution compared to the 6.3 megapixel standard for prosumer digital still
photography.

>
> Thank you very much for your kind help.
>
> David

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

"David A. Hirshfeld" <david_a_hirshfeld@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:36ccd307.0410260006.f0928c@posting.google.com...
> Dear netters:
>
> Here is my setup: 1) Sony TRV900; 2) P4 2.4GHz 512MB (Windows XP).
>
> First, I want to transfer the video from my camcorder to my
> computer. From what I read I need an IEEE1394 card for this. Then,
> on my computer, I want to convert the miniDV video to a sequence of
> still images, say foo0001, foo0002, foo0003, ... Here I prefer these
> images to be lossless, or of the best quality possible. After that,
> my own software will take over.
>
> I have a few questions:
>
> 1) What a good IEEE1394 card would you recommend for my purpose?

just about any card will do.

>
> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?

You should capture your sequences as DV movies first, with just about any
capture app.
Then, use Premiere, or any other app that can do it, to generate a frame
sequence.
At present I know of no apps that will create a numbered frame seq directly
from DV.
Keep in mind that even if you render uncompressed frame sequences you are
still dealing pretty much with DV's compression artifacts.


>
> 3) What image file format should I choose?

Any format that is uncompressed. Depends on the app you intend to load them
into. You won't be using alpha so. BMP. Targe(tga), Tiff, PNG.



>
> Thank you very much for your kind help.

If you tell us what you are trying to dowith the frame sequences we may be
able tohelp more.



>
> David

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

a-e-i-o-u- wrote:
> snip <
>> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?
>
> You should capture your sequences as DV movies first, with just about
> any capture app.
> Then, use Premiere, or any other app that can do it, to generate a
> frame sequence.
> At present I know of no apps that will create a numbered frame seq
> directly from DV.


IrfanView (bmp only but it has a batch converter built in - and it's much
better at numbering) and VirtualDub (tga and bmp) both do this very easily.

Mike

 

[rehan]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

> 1) What a good IEEE1394 card would you recommend for my purpose?

Any cheap one should do ok.


> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?

TMPGenc or VirtualDub


> 3) What image file format should I choose?

BMP/PNG

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

"Mike Kujbida" <kujfam-misleadingspam@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:2u81svF28at3lU1@uni-berlin.de...
> a-e-i-o-u- wrote:
>> snip <
>>> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?
>>
>> You should capture your sequences as DV movies first, with just about
>> any capture app.
>> Then, use Premiere, or any other app that can do it, to generate a
>> frame sequence.
>> At present I know of no apps that will create a numbered frame seq
>> directly from DV.
>
>
> IrfanView (bmp only but it has a batch converter built in - and it's much
> better at numbering) and VirtualDub (tga and bmp) both do this very
> easily.
>
> Mike
\
showz ya what I know.


>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

a-e-i-o-u- wrote:
> "Mike Kujbida" <kujfam-misleadingspam@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:2u81svF28at3lU1@uni-berlin.de...
>> a-e-i-o-u- wrote:
>>> snip <
>>>> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?
>>>
>>> You should capture your sequences as DV movies first, with just
>>> about any capture app.
>>> Then, use Premiere, or any other app that can do it, to generate a
>>> frame sequence.
>>> At present I know of no apps that will create a numbered frame seq
>>> directly from DV.
>>
>>
>> IrfanView (bmp only but it has a batch converter built in - and it's
>> much better at numbering) and VirtualDub (tga and bmp) both do this
>> very easily.
>>
>> Mike
> \
> showz ya what I know.


Don't feel bad. I had no idea either but thought "I wonder if they can?"
and Voila!! - Instant image sequence. They're both free as well as being
very useful apps.

Mike

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop,microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

mini-DV is 720 X 480 resolution. This is pretty low resolution, and it shows. If
I print these bigger than about 2 or 3 inches, the print looks bad. I'm not sure
about capturing a big string, but any good editing software, like Adobe Premiere
will let you capture stills from you AVI files. I'm not sure if Premiere has the
option to "de-interlace" automatically with the stills, but if it does, for sure
check this. Otherwise I use Adobe Photoshop to de-interlace. This is on the
filters list, under "video" I think.

"David A. Hirshfeld" <david_a_hirshfeld@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:36ccd307.0410260006.f0928c@posting.google.com...
> Dear netters:
>
> Here is my setup: 1) Sony TRV900; 2) P4 2.4GHz 512MB (Windows XP).
>
> First, I want to transfer the video from my camcorder to my
> computer. From what I read I need an IEEE1394 card for this. Then,
> on my computer, I want to convert the miniDV video to a sequence of
> still images, say foo0001, foo0002, foo0003, ... Here I prefer these
> images to be lossless, or of the best quality possible. After that,
> my own software will take over.
>
> I have a few questions:
>
> 1) What a good IEEE1394 card would you recommend for my purpose?
>
> 2) What software should I use for the miniDV-to-image conversion?
>
> 3) What image file format should I choose?
>
> Thank you very much for your kind help.
>
> David

 

[rehan]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.video (More info?)

> I plan to implement a frame-by-frame 2D feature tracker.
> For higher precision output, the image quality is more of a
> concern than the compression rate.

Why dont you consider writing a directshow filter (also called an Effect).
The DirectShow framework would pass you each frame to process while taking
care of the rigors of loading/saving/conversion etc.

For more info consult the DirectShow documentation on MSDN particularly the
DirectShow Filters section.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/directx9_c/directx/htm/buildingdirectshowfilters.asp

--
Rehan
www.rehanfx.org - get transitions and effects for Windows MovieMaker



<david_a_hirshfeld@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1098837122.524611.277330@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> First off, thanks to everyone who answered my questions.
> I very much appreciate it.
>
> I plan to implement a frame-by-frame 2D feature tracker.
> For higher precision output, the image quality is more of a
> concern than the compression rate.
>
> For image sequence output, I tried both QuickTime Pro
> and VirtualDub. QuickTime 6.5.1 supports BMP, JPEG, MacPaint,
> Photoshop, PICT, PNG, Quick Time Image, SGI, TGA, and TIFF.
> VirtualDub 1.5.10 supports BMP and TGA. For lossless
> compression, PNG seems to be the best choice for me.
>
> BTW, I just went to newegg.com. For under $20, one can
> get an IEEE 1394a card with a cable and ULead VideoStudio V5.
> Thanks again!
>
> David
>